Trouble charging at Harley Livewire fast charge stations

[Zpmada]

Does anyone else have difficulty charging at Harley Davidson Livewire DC fast chargers with their charge point app? I've tried two separate Harley dealers and both couldn't connect to my i3. The charge point rep didn't know why. I've tried holding the charger as sometimes the heavy cables at Chevy fast chargers prevent the lock from clipping on, but the lock was working. The charge point comments showed a Hyaundai Ioniqe worked fine before me.

 

[SkepTeach]

I tried at a Harley charger yesterday in my Bolt and it wouldn't work. It would start to connect and charge, and then the car would throw a cannot charge fault. I've charged at this particular one before, but on the ChargePoint app it looks like the last successful charge was around 9/12.

 

[ScottOwnsAPanda]

Today, I charged my i3 at a local Harley-Davidson dealer for the first time. It was a ChargePoint 24 kw charger. It was free, and available 24/7. It worked great, other than being slower than a 50 kw charger.

 

[BL5]

Today, I charged my i3 at a local Harley-Davidson dealer for the first time. It was a ChargePoint 24 kw charger. It was free, and available 24/7. It worked great, other than being slower than a 50 kw charger.

I’ve often wondered about this. I’ve only gotten 1 or 2 Chargepoint/Harley CCS chargers to work on my i3s. Seems like the last one was outside of Dallas, TX. I use Chargepoint all the time. I’ve even put in several support tickets with Chargepoint.. The response - CRICKETS.

Crappy customer service on Chragepoint’s behalf.

Anyone else have issues????

 

[keepgoing]

I believe the issue is the software/hardware issue on the i3. Mine is a 2014 BEV in NJ. I tried two Chargepoint CCS 24kW. One is in Mercedes Dealership, free to use. For this charger, every time I plugin, the locking pin in the car would not come out to lock the plug, and the charger will throw an error saying locking failure. All I need to do is unplug and plug it back in, sometime to a tune of 50 times, then the locking pin will engage and charging starts. The other is one in Harley Davidson dealership's charger, looks exactly the same is the one in Mercedes. This charger charge a nominal fee by mins. As soon as I plug in, the locking pin will engage and lock the charge plug, but after 15 seconds of talking to the charger, the pin will retract and unlock the plug and charger complains error. Unplug and try again would result the same issue, pin engage and then dis-engage after communication with the car. I never ever able to charge from the Harley's charger. From the history of this Harley charger, I saw only Chevy Bolts and Hyundai EV successfully using it, but no BMW.
So it must be BMW's sloppy software because apparently, my locking pin is functioning (can extend and retract). And BMW is not planning to update the software like Tesla does to their car. I have not gotten any software update since 2017.

 

[alohart]

And BMW is not planning to update the software like Tesla does to their car. I have not gotten any software update since 2017.

I'm pretty certain that BMW releases i3 system software updates every 4 or so months. However, unlike Tesla, an i3 owner must pay a dealer to install an update unless it solves a problem that the owner reports and the original 4-year warranty is still in effect.

I purposely bought a new 2014 i3 with all available hardware options hoping that BMW would do what Tesla had done: release software updates that would enable new features and functionalities. Needless to say, I've been completely disappointed even though the i3 is almost perfect for our needs.

 

[ScottOwnsAPanda]

an i3 owner must pay a dealer to install an update

An i3 owner should be able to update the car's software without involving the dealer. When I bought my 2018 i3 earlier this year, I updated the software using a USB flash drive.

 

[alohart]

An i3 owner should be able to update the car's software without involving the dealer. When I bought my 2018 i3 earlier this year, I updated the software using a USB flash drive.

The only owner-updatable software is the phone and media software. This software is included in the large system software updates that only dealers can install. New system software versions are released every 4 months yet the phone and media software that I could download from BMW hasn't been updated in years for our 2014 BEV. BMW won't install system software updates at no cost unless an i3 is under warranty and the update fixes a known problem that the owner complains about.